chapter_0259

Mesugaki Tank Enters the Academy –
259

Mesugaki Tank Enters the Academy –
259

The battle resumed.

The situation was similar to before.

The skeleton attacked, and I defended.

The only thing that had changed was Grandpa’s voice echoing in my
ears.

‘Of course I do! You only nagged me about it a thousand times!’

The fundamentals, known to all as the foundation of any discipline,
were the basis upon which anything else was built. If one ignored the
process of honing these fundamentals and tried to build upon shaky
ground, everything would collapse sooner or later, leaving one worse
off for their effort.

Grandpa had drilled this into me constantly.

He said there was a reason every true master emphasized the basics,
and he had scolded me whenever I tried to cut corners to gain
proficiency. How could I forget?

Grandpa explained.

Garad’s swordplay was not flashy or unique.

Considering that I felt such overwhelming power while facing it, it
sounded absurd to call it ordinary. Yet, I understood what Grandpa
was trying to say.

The skeleton’s strikes weren’t particularly fast. There was no sign
of Frey’s signature swift blade, which was all about speed and
pressure.

The strikes weren’t particularly heavy either. There was none of
the oppressive force I had seen in the Allen family knights—the
kind that stripped the concept of ‘defense’ from the opponent
entirely.

Was it flashy? Not at all. His sword was painfully plain and
practical.

In every respect, Garad’s swordsmanship was simple.

And yet, it was powerful.

Incredibly powerful, to the point that I couldn’t find a way
through. His blade was always exactly where it needed to be,
preventing me from advancing at all.

‘I have no idea!’

The various advanced techniques in swordsmanship that the world
admired could be thought of as architectural wonders.

A towering skyscraper.

An impenetrable fortress.

A maze with no way out.

A haphazardly built house that somehow stood sturdy.

But Garad’s swordplay was not a building.

It was the foundation.

He piled earth upon earth, creating a hill as tall as the others’
towers.

Instead of constructing a building, Garad built a mountain.

From atop a lofty mountain, you could see everything.

The weak points of a skyscraper.

The unstable parts of a fortress.

The map of a maze.

The flimsy pillars of a freshly built house.

This allowed him to exploit them.

He crushed his opponent’s strengths, exploited their weaknesses,
and forced them out of their constructed defenses, only to overwhelm
them with his superior vantage point.

I understood Grandpa’s explanation, but my mind still felt anything
but clear.

‘Okay, so what am I supposed to do about it?!’

The most crucial part—how to defeat him—was missing.

Frustrated by Grandpa’s praise for the opponent who was currently
smothering me, I shouted.

Grandpa laughed.

‘What kind of nonsense is that?!’

Seriously, what kind of advice was that?!

No matter how I thought about it, it felt incomplete!

I screamed, but Grandpa gave no response, as if he had said all that
needed to be said.

Aargh! How could he sum it up so dismissively, leaving me in
frustration?!

Grandpa! Are you trying to drive me insane like that useless god you
served?!

If he’s slowly becoming like that sloppy god, someday he’ll be a
full-on pervert, wheezing and drooling, ‘Heh, heheh!’

…And then my entire surroundings would be filled with perverts?!

No way! I can’t accept such a horrible future!

As ridiculous thoughts flooded my heated mind, I lost track of the
skeleton’s sword for a moment.

I belatedly heard [Iron Wall]’s warning and raised my shield, but
the skeleton wasn’t foolish enough to allow me to regain my stance.

Off-balance, I took a direct hit from the skeleton’s sword, my body
sent flying before slamming into the ground.

I tasted blood in my mouth.

“No more room for words, it seems? Ha. Seeing that tiny mouth of
yours finally shut brings me joy.”

I got up, listening to the skeleton’s laughter.

The blow must have been solid, as I could feel divine energy surging
inside me due to [Impact Conversion].

Spitting out the blood pooling in my mouth, I used [Armadi’s Mercy]
to heal myself. Thanks to Ankir boosting my divine power, my body
quickly returned to its peak condition.

“Will you just stand there and watch? It’s a bit embarrassing to
be exposed like this.”

Ignoring his banter, I pondered Grandpa’s words, but the answer did
not come easily.

Telling someone like me—who had never climbed anything higher than
a hill in high school—to go mountaineering was absurd.

“Have you given up?”

Only one thought occurred to me.

It was something my manager used to say when I was being treated like
a corporate slave.

That bald pig would always say that mountains were climbed by looking
down at the ground, one step at a time, until you unknowingly reached
the top. He said work was the same, that if you kept your head down,
overtime would be over before you knew it.

…Wait a minute.

Hold on.

“This is enough.”

As the realization cleared my head, a chuckle slipped out.

Ha. I wanted to beat him to death whenever he said that nonsense
while heading home early, and now it turns out it’s useful?

“…Huh?”

Hearing my involuntary giggling, the skeleton tilted his head in
confusion.

Did he think I had lost my mind?

Well, whatever. I didn’t care what he thought.

I gathered the divine energy swirling inside me, steadying my mace
and shield.

“Oh, so you haven’t given up? As expected…”

“Shut up♥ You eunuch skeleton♥”

Grandpa had told me from the start. My strategy wasn’t wrong. He
vouched for it in his own name.

“Did you lose your manhood and fail as a male?♥ You sound just
like a chatty old lady.♥”

If my strategy was correct…

If the path I was climbing was the right one…

There was no need to look around as I ascended.

Just keep moving forward, step by step, focusing only on the path
ahead.

“Would you like to discover a new identity now?♥ I’ll get you a
dress, so put it on!♥ No one will even notice since you’re just
an empty skeleton anyway!♥”

If my interpretation was right, then Grandpa’s words simply meant
not to doubt myself.

Keep doing what I was doing. Keep going until it works.

If I felt lacking, then simply put more strength into each step.

Trust the path I had chosen.

“Garad the Hero in a dress~♥ Pfft!♥ It might actually suit you,
you know?♥”

“…Indeed. It was my mistake to let you have the chance to speak.”

I didn’t know if this interpretation was correct. Maybe I was
heading toward a cliff instead of the summit.

But what did it matter? If I was about to jump off a cliff, Grandpa
would shout in a panic.

When that time came, I could blame him for not explaining things
properly.

“Just realizing that now?♥ Your empty skull really makes you
slow-witted, huh?♥ A eunuch and an idiot.♥ Pfft.♥ How
pitiful.♥”

I parried the strike that came with a click of his tongue.

It was time to climb this steep mountain path.

Ruel, who always stayed close to Lucy, believed that Lucy’s martial
talents were genuine.

Her perseverance through countless hardships, her ability to rapidly
absorb whatever she was taught—these clearly indicated that she had
the potential to become a hero.

However, there was one major problem Lucy had.

It was that Lucy knew far too much.

Blessed by the gods, chosen to hear stories directly from the
heavens, Lucy’s knowledge was vast—to a point where even Ruel, with
all his experience, couldn’t fully comprehend its scope.

What was even more impressive was how Lucy handled this immense
knowledge.

She always brought forth the right knowledge at the right time,
paving the quickest and safest path forward.

Seeing Lucy overcome danger, Ruel often thought how wonderful it
would have been if the heroes of the past had been as competent as
she was.

But this same knowledge was sometimes the very thing that put Lucy in
danger. Because her knowledge was so useful, she often found herself
trapped by it.

Like now.

That damn skeleton made by Karon was eerily similar to Garad.

Even Ruel, who had spent over a decade with Garad, could barely tell
them apart at times.

The skeleton’s swordsmanship was no different.

The sword of the skeleton had both the strengths and weaknesses of
Garad’s sword.

Earlier, Ruel had told Lucy that Garad’s sword had no weaknesses—but
that only applied to Garad himself.

With his overwhelming presence, Garad’s sword had no discernible
flaws.

But that was only true when backed by overwhelming force.

Without the force to crush his opponents, Garad’s sword lacked
weaknesses but also lacked strengths.

That was precisely the case with the current skeleton.

Robbed of its original vast magical power, moving tenuously with the
evil god’s insufficient energy, the skeleton’s presence was far
weaker.

Despite its wealth of battle experience pressing Lucy, that was all
it had.

In terms of pure physical ability, it was comparable to Lucy.

Thus, as long as she held her strategy and kept advancing, even if
she couldn’t win outright, she could still land a significant blow.

In the beginning, Lucy had the upper hand.

She moved as if she had memorized every one of the skeleton’s habits,
driving it back.

For most opponents, that would have sufficed.

Once Lucy’s characteristic taunts shattered their emotions, they
would rush in recklessly, oblivious to what they were doing wrong,
and end up destroyed.

But this opponent was different.

The skeleton held the memories of Garad, who had fought in countless
battles.

Even in its rage, it understood the problem and adapted its sword
style, nullifying Lucy’s knowledge.

From that moment, the tide of the battle turned.

With her knowledge rendered useless, Lucy grew agitated.

Emotionally caught up, she played right into the skeleton’s hands.

Ruel had observed the entire process but had said nothing.

He wanted her to recognize the problem by experiencing a crushing
defeat.

Lucy wasn’t just a child who wanted to become a hero. She was a child
who had to become a hero.

If she relied on his help to defeat the skeleton now, the same thing
would happen again—one day, she would face a stronger opponent and
have her life threatened in the same way.

It was better for her to taste defeat here, in a place where her life
wasn’t at risk, Ruel thought.

The reason Ruel had changed his mind wasn’t much.

It was the sight of Lucy gripping her shield with such determination.

And it was because the skeleton was bullying a girl who could have
been his granddaughter.

It was an entirely emotional decision.

Ruel regretted giving Lucy all that advice for a while, thinking it
was the wrong choice.

But not anymore.

“Why do you keep glancing at my legs?♥ You can’t even get it up
since you’re a eunuch, right?♥ Oh! Is it an old habit from when
you were alive?♥ Sir Hero, you must have been quite the pervert!♥”

“…Enough!”

Lucy was climbing the mountain.

She firmly believed the path she was taking was correct.

Upward. Upward. And upward again.

She was heading toward the summit.

The momentum of the battle had shifted long ago.

Lucy was composed, and the skeleton was desperate.

With its weakened state, the skeleton couldn’t break through Lucy’s
shield.

Instead of creating openings and looking for opportunities, it was
rushing in blindly, influenced by Lucy’s provocations.

‘Ha. She’s doing so well now—why hadn’t she been like this
earlier?’

If she had been able to correct herself sooner, she would have.

Well, that confidence of hers wasn’t without its issues, but those
were things he could gradually teach her.

For now, this was enough.

‘What is it, Grandpa? Keep it brief!’

‘…Wow, such useful advice!’

Now, it was time to enjoy watching the Garad-like skeleton get
taunted mercilessly.

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